Now Jesus has confronted Saul on the road to Damascus. We’ve covered the first part of the account of his conversion in Acts 9:1-7. This is verse 8-9, “And when Saul got up off of the ground, though his eyes were open, he couldn’t see anything. So they led him by the hand and took him on into Damascus. He was blind for three days and during that time he neither ate nor drank anything.”
It might be appropriate at this point to consider what a traumatic experience this was for Saul. He had been persecuting believers and consenting not only to their imprisonment, but also to their death. Then, this Jesus that he had so opposed appeared and spoke to him. That He appeared in bodily form is evident from the statements that follow of both Ananias (verse 17) and Barnabas (verse 27). Saul is in shock, he can’t see, he can’t eat, and he won’t drink. His world has been turned up side down and inside out.
Then in verses 10-16 there is the account of Ananias and the vision of the Lord he received concerning Saul. We should note that “vision” is from horama, and means, appearance. The Lord appeared to Ananias and spoke to him (verse 10), telling him where to find Saul of Tarsus, and that Saul was there praying (verse 11). This gives us a glimpse into Saul’s mental and spiritual state.
At this point we should jump forward to Acts 23:1 where Paul makes this statement to the Sanhedrin in his own defense, “Men and brethren, I have lived before God with a perfectly good conscience to this very day.” This was Paul’s way of saying that both as a Jew and then as a Christian he had been honest and sincere. When he was persecuting Christians, it was because he was convinced he was serving God. But then when Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus, he sought to serve Him with the same honest zeal.
Now we see Paul in earnest prayer, seeking to know the will of God, so he could be obedient. And sometime during that three days in prayer, the Lord appears again to Paul to tell him a man named Ananias would come and lay hands on him so his sight could be restored (verse 12).
And since Ananias was understandably hesitant to go to Saul, because he had heard Saul was coming to Damascus with the authority to arrest Christians and take them to Jerusalem; the Lord reassures him in verses 15-16. There are two things to consider here. First, the Lord tells Ananias that Saul is “a chosen vessel”, literally, one who has been set apart for the service of God. There is an implication here, which is, that the Lord knew Saul’s heart, could look down through time, and already knew Saul would serve Him tirelessly and with no thought of personal sacrifice.
The second thing is in verse 16 where He says, “I will make it clear to him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.” Here, the word translated “suffer” is from pascho, and means, to suffer on the behalf of others. Again, we know and will note at times in future lessons, the willingness Paul shows in suffering and personal sacrifice for the sake of others, especially those in the churches he will establish. There is another way of looking at this verse. The Lord is saying, “instead of you spending the rest of your life persecuting those who believe in Me, you are going to be persecuted because you believe in Me”.
Next we see the exchange between Ananias and Saul in verses 17-18. The sequence of events here seems to be: the reception of sight (verses 17-18), filling of the Spirit (verse 17), arising from prayer (verses 11, 18) and baptism in water (verse (18). And, if you remember, back in Lesson 162 I said water baptism in the Book of Acts is merely a temporary teaching tool used to teach the disciples about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And we see many inconsistencies in Acts regarding the relationship between the two. Here, Saul is filled with the Spirit, then baptized.
In the previous chapter Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch and there is no mention of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:36-39). Yet, Peter back in Acts 2:38 said “Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Now, I don’t want to make this too complicated, but it seems there are several things going on here.
There is baptism that seems to be a pre-requisite for the filling of the Spirit. There is the filling of the Spirit, then baptism. And there is baptism with no mention of the filling of the Spirit. The summary of what Paul came to understand and practice regarding baptism found in Lesson 166 is an example of progressive revelation through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (what Jesus promised His disciples in John 16:12-13). It is clear that Paul came to the time when he understood water baptism was not necessary. Yet, in his early experience and under the instruction of Ananias, he submitted to what was actually a ceremonial water baptism. I’ll try to explain all of this in a future lesson.
Verses 20-22 give further proof of Saul’s honest zeal for God. After spending several days with some disciples in Damascus (verse 19), he begins to preach Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God!” Verse 21 says the people were amazed at the change that had come over Paul. “Amazed” is from existemi, the same word translated “bewitched” in 8:9 and is used to describe something that cannot be explained – those who heard Saul preach Jesus were dumbfounded.
Further, in verse 22 Saul continued to grow more and more powerful in his ability to preach truth, confounding the Jews in Damascus with proof that Jesus is the Christ. And you might well wonder how he could have gotten to this point so quickly – he was a Pharisee with extensive knowledge of the Old Testament and now he was filled with the Holy Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26).